- Date
- March 8, 2015, 11:30 local (16:30 UTC)
- Place
- Newport, RI
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N65645Cessna 172P
- Defining event
- Landing-flare/touchdown: Hard landing
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report August 11, 2015
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- FAA report
- 20150308002509A
- Case key
- 90854
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The student pilot's failure to maintain aircraft control during landing, and his subsequent failure to recover from a bounced landing, which resulted in a hard landing.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The student pilot was conducting a solo flight and landing on a 2,999-foot-long, 75-foot-wide, asphalt runway. During touchdown, the airplane began to bounce, and subsequently landed hard, which resulted in substantial damage to the nose landing gear and firewall. The airplane veered to the left and contacted a snowbank that extended parallel to the runway. The student pilot reported that he did not experience any preaccident malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. He further reported 43 hours of total flight experience, all in the same make model as the accident airplane, which included 7 hours logged as pilot-in-command.
Factual narrative
The student pilot was conducting a solo flight and landing on a 2,999-foot-long, 75-foot-wide, asphalt runway. During touchdown, the airplane began to bounce, and subsequently landed hard, which resulted in substantial damage to the nose landing gear and firewall. The airplane veered to the left and contacted a snowbank that extended parallel to the runway. The student pilot reported that he did not experience any preaccident malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation. He further reported 43 hours of total flight experience, all in the same make model as the accident airplane, which included 7 hours logged as pilot-in-command.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N65645
- Reported as
- Cessna 172P
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17275797
- Built
- 1982
- Airframe hours
- 13,390
- Engine
- Lycoming 0-320 SERIES, 160 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Interstate Aviation Inc
- Registered owner
- Interstate Aviation Inc
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · December 24, 2014 · 28 hours before
- Departed
- 4B8 · Plainville, CT
- Destination
- UUU · Newport, RI
- Airport
- UUU · Newport State, runway 22, 2,999 × 75 ft, asphalt
- Equipment
- Stall warning system
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Student pilot
- Age
- 33
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- February 28, 2015
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 43 total · 43 in this make and model · 7 as pilot in command · 12 in the last 90 days · 7 in the last 30 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 220° at 7 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Temperature
- 39 °F, dew point 28 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.97 inHg
- Icing
- Unknown
- Turbulence
- Unknown
- Observed at
- UUU
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on July 27, 2015, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.2 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N65645 · 2
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.